50 years ago, alcohol use was linked to several gene variants

Excerpt from the December 24, 1966, issue of Science News

BOTTOMS UP Genes affect how much alcohol people drink, but researchers haven’t yet found all of them. There may be hundreds.

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A case for genetic drinking

Whether one drinks at all, how much and how often are partly due to heredity, [according to a Finnish study of 902 male twins].… A genetic element in alcoholism “seems highly plausible,” [researchers] said.… Surprisingly, genes also have much to do with creating an abstainer. Lack of control — which should resemble alcoholism — is no single gene, but a group of traits. — Science News, December 24, 1966

UPDATE

As the Finnish researchers predicted, how much or how little someone drinks may be influenced by many genes. A study of rats published August 4 in PLOS Genetics

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